During his 91 years, Spanish convert and filmmaker Jose Maria Oliveira was so intrigued by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ concept of life after death that he made it the focal point of two movies.
But rather than zoom in on the banal and lighthearted fare the faith’s film aficionados had grown accustomed to in movies like “The Singles Ward” and “Mobsters and Mormons,” Oliveira’s motion pictures exposed audiences to heavy church doctrine on murder, infidelity and the fate of sinners in the afterlife.
On Friday, a half-century after Oliveira’s art house “horror” flicks “Beware of Darkness” (1973) and “The Dead, the Devil and the Flesh” (1974) played to critical acclaim in theaters across Spain, the now largely forgotten filmmaker died.
The convert who helped the U.S.-born faith take root and blossom in Spain, died at his Salt Lake City apartment, surrounded by family members.
“My father was the spiritual heart of our family,” said his son and family spokesperson, Jonathan Graff, “guiding us with prayer, wisdom and a deep love for Christ that shaped the way we live and love each other.”
‘Unknown giant of LDS cinema’
(BYU Special Collections) A frame of Jose Oliveira's 1973 movie "Beware of Darkness." It shows Patricia Wright (her maiden name and stage name; she was Oliveira's wife) conducting a seance in the movie.
Unfamiliar as he and his work are to many of his fellow church members, Oliveira’s death caused ripples that resonated in some Latter-day Saint cinema circles.
Jonathan Martin, founder and director of FilmQuest, one of the state’s premier film festivals, hailed the moviemaker as “the unknown giant of LDS cinema” and one of his “biggest inspirations.”
“His films were far ahead of their time,” Martin said. “Many filmmakers and writers in both LDS and faith-based cinema and storytelling today could learn a lot from Jose’s work and legacy in how to tell mature, challenging and complex LDS stories that push the ideas and boundaries of what is ‘acceptable’ without having to compromise their beliefs.”
Martin has admired Oliveira’s work since 2010, when he first saw “The Dead, the Devil and the Flesh” and met the Spanish moviemaker and his wife, Patricia. In 2015, he premiered Oliveira’s work at his festival and later collaborated with Brigham Young University film archivist Ben Harry to digitally restore both movies, which were showcased in special screenings at the church-owned school in 2022.
“Among Latter-day Saint artists working in film,” Harry said, “Oliveira’s work stands out in its attempt to enmesh the secular with specific LDS doctrines, especially for the time in which they were made. His legacy is hindered mostly by the historically very limited access to his works and can only grow as they will be seen by audiences.”
Faith over films
Oliveira may be better remembered for his faith than his films, which are loosely billed as horror or psychological thrillers and are seldom seen in Utah or other states. After his baptism in 1966, Oliveira helped the church win formal recognition in Spain and served his church as the country’s first Spanish branch president, district president, stake president and stake patriarch.
Born in 1934 in the port city of Huelva, Oliveira moved to Madrid after the Spanish Civil War and earned a law degree from the University of Madrid. He later worked as a legal counsel for the William Morris Agency in Spain, often tasked with providing services to major Hollywood actors like David Niven, who were under contract with studios to make movies in Spain.
(Oliveira family) Jose Oliveira, left, with the British actor David Niven in Spain.
[Read more about Oliveira’s life and work in the movie industry and the role he played in the church’s growth in Spain as well as how the faith is faring in the European nation.]
Oliveira became intrigued with Mormonism in 1959 after he began dating Patricia Wright, a Utahn who was living in Madrid with her brother. After his baptism and marriage to Wright, Oliveira began teaching Sunday school in Spanish at the American branch.
(Oliveira family) Jose Oliveira with his wife, Patricia. Patricia died in 2020. He died Friday.
After going nearly a decade without a Spanish convert, the branch quickly had 25 of them due largely to Oliveira’s teaching. That led to the formation of an independent Spanish branch, which paved the way for Spain to formally recognize the Utah-based church in 1968, a year after Parliament granted religious freedom to non-Catholic faiths.
Oliveira also played a pivotal role in getting Latter-day Saint missionaries into predominantly Catholic Spain. At a Utah gala celebrating the 50th anniversary of that accomplishment, Oliveira recalled the time he accompanied apostle Marion G. Romney to meet with the government official in charge of non-Catholic religions.
Acting as a translator, the fledgling convert cautioned the apostle against disclosing the church’s plan to send missionaries, saying “we can do it, but we can’t talk about it” and “we have to be wise as a serpent.”
Romney’s response: “Thou shalt not lie.”
Well, as Oliveira quipped at the meeting, “we converts do strange things.”
“When the official asked, ‘What are the plans of your church for Spain?’ I said to President Romney, ‘He asked what are the church’s plans. ….’ [Romney] said, ‘Well, you know, tell him.’ So I said, ‘Our plan is to build a chapel.’ I did not mention the missionaries.”
Paul Laemmlen, who became acquainted with the charismatic Oliveira while serving a church mission to Madrid in the late ’70s., likens him to a rock star.
“His leadership during the early growth and later decades of the church,” the Cedar Hills resident said, “was instrumental in building a foundation which has led to the establishment of modern stakes and temples in Spain, and will bless many lives.”
Today, due largely to Spanish converts like Oliveira and throngs of missionaries, Spain has more than 68,000 members, nearly 140 congregations and one Latter-day Saint temple (with plans for a second).
Resurgence of interest
In 1990, the Oliveiras moved to Utah and bought the apartment where he has resided alone in recent years (Patricia died five years ago).
Harry, the BYU film archivist, said Oliveira told him that he screened “The Dead, the Devil and the Flesh” at a Salt Lake City theater after arriving in Utah and invited members of his congregation to attend.
“He said church members who came left after 10 minutes because they were expecting to see a family movie,” Harry recalled. “They were expecting something like “Where the Red Fern Grows,” and they were seeing people [in the movie] with sex and heroin addictions … and they were murdering each other. So they walked out.”
Conversely, he added, foreign film fans were put off by the obvious nods to church doctrine and began shaking their heads before they, too, headed for the exits. Within 20 minutes, Harry said, Oliveira was sitting alone in the theater.
Subsequent screenings of his flicks at FilmQuest and BYU have led to a resurgence of interest in Oliveira. Lest knowledge of his two movies die with him, Martin is committed to introducing new generations of filmmakers to his work.
“Jose was and still is in another ballpark with regard to LDS cinema,” Martin said. “There simply hasn’t been anyone like him. I look forward with enthusiasm for his work to be rediscovered by the next generation of creatives.”
Oliveira’s singularity as a filmmaker is not lost on Harry either. The archivist’s greatest lament: “He only produced two examples for us to ponder.”